'It's a Heartbreak,' Says Executive With U.S. Aircraft Maker

TOKYO—It was a scene unthinkable just 10 years ago: the chief executive of Airbus appearing at a swank hotel conference room, shaking hands with his Japan Airlines Co. counterpart as together they hoisted a model of an A350 jetliner bearing the JAL red crane.

The real significance of the Monday news conference was that JAL's order iced out Boeing Co., which had claimed every previous JAL long-distance-aircraft contract of the past...